Wednesday 9/16: Scott Esposito talks with Mexican fiction writer Guadalupe Nettel about her first novel to appear in English translation, The Body Where I Was Born. Read Amy Rowland‘s recent review in the New York Times if you need to get motivated for this one. Free, 7:30 p.m., Green Apple Books on the Park.
Also tonight, Oakland-based novelist Ayize Jama-Everett will be in North Beach to celebrate the release of two new books, The Entropy of Bones and The Liminal War. Free, 7 p.m., City Lights Bookstore.
Thursday 9/17: Alley Cat Books presents a Triple Threat Book Launch with first books from Siamak Vossoughi, Alicia Jo Rabins, and Tracey Knapp. Siamek Vossoughi has won a Flannery O’Connor Award for short fiction; Alicia Jo Rabins won the American Poetry Review/Honickman First book Prize for Divinity School; and Tracey Knapp has received scholarships from Tin House Writers’ Workshop and the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fund, among other accomplishments. Free, 7 p.m., Alley Cat Books.
Although this column usually doesn’t feature high-priced events, how could we fail to notice Miranda July at City Arts & Lectures, along with singer/songwriter Thao Nguyen? And, besides, it’s a benefit for the 826 Valencia Scholarship Program. This’ll be worth every penny. $29, 7:30 p.m., The Nourse.
Friday 9/18: ZYZZYVA celebrates the release of its Fall issue (No. 104) with readings by Molly Spencer, Joseph Di Prisco, Caille Millner, and Kathleen Alcott. Free, 7 p.m., Diesel, A Bookstore.
Omnidawn presents their Fall Book Release Party featuring Andrea Baker, Barbara Claire Freeman, Cecil Giscombe, Douglas Piccinnini, Margaret Ross, Cassandra Smith, and Emily Capettini. If you don’t recognize all these names, check out the links. This is a high-powered lineup! Free, 7:30 p.m., Moe’s Books.
Saturday 9/19: The Monday Night Literary Journal introduces issue #14 with featured readers Raina J. León, David M. Morini, and Nicole Trigg. Free, 3 p.m., The Octopus Literary Salon.
The Aggregate Space Gallery’s Featherboard Writing Series presents art and writers together. Tonight, the art exhibition, AlterLand Escape, features sculpture, video, and multi-channel installation works by Centa Schumacher, John Tronsor, and May Wilson. Featured readers are Writer in Residence Nico Peck, Aja Couchois Duncan, and Janice Lobo Sapigao. Free, 6 p.m., Aggregate Space Gallery.
Sunday 9/20: Small Press Traffic presents a reading and conversation with Hugo Garcia-Manriquez and Dolores Dorantes. $6-$10 (no one turned away for lack of funds), 5:30 p.m., Artists’ Television Access.
Monday 9/21: At The Inkwell: Fiction Night features Elena Mauli Shapiro, Apollo Papafrangou, Kathryn Kruse, and Carolina de Robertis. Free, 7 p.m., Alley Cat Books.
Tuesday 9/22: Nomadic Press presents the debut of Be Live About It, co-hosted by Alexandra Naughton and J. K. Fowler. The press blurb reads: Think Oakland Nights … Live meets Saturday Night Live meets The Tonight Show: in-house instrumental band, a little over one hour of programming, a featured poet, comedian, and physical performer, and a sit-down interview where the co-hosts dive into the process and personality of one of the features on that particular night. The initial line-up is yet to be announced, but, on the other hand, Nomadic Press has yet to disappoint. Free (donations kindly requested), 8 p.m., Woods Bar & Brewery.
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This week’s theatre recommendation comes from Richard Connema of the San Francisco Bay Theatre Critics Circle, who suggests the revival of Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire presented by the Role Players Ensemble at the Village Theatre in Danville, closing this weekend, with only two performances remaining. Connema describes this production as “one of the best productions I have seen of this . . . classic.” Connema should know. As a camerman on the Warner Brothers lot, he worked on the film starring Marlon Brando. For further information, click here.
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Evan Karp presents video of this week’s featured local author Lewis DeSimone, Click here to read an interview.
And here’s video from one of last week’s SF Notables, Pelekinesis Meets Nomadic Press and the Bay, featuring the impish Brooklyn writer, Peter Cherches.
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If you have a Bay Area event listing you’d like us to consider, please contact [email protected] as far in advance as possible, and include the date of the event in the subject line.
